Raspberry showcases Model A Pi board

The Raspberry foundation has confirmed that its first model A Pi units are rolling off the production line.

This particular iteration of the wildly popular Pi board is loaded with 256MB of RAM, with a "significantly lower" power consumption requirement compared to its Model B counterpart.

However, the Model B lacks an Ethernet chip and is equipped with only one USB slot.

"We’re seeing demand for the Model A from people making industrial control modules, from roboticists, from people doing automation, for a bunch of headless operations – and, significantly, for people who want to use the Pi as a very cheap media center," explained Raspberry rep Liz Upton.

"We’re pretty excited. The Model A is something we wanted to produce months ago, but the crazy demand for the Model B has meant that we’ve not been able to build them [until now]. We’re hoping to get them off the line and into the hands of our distributors early in the new year, which will put us in a position where that strap line at the top of the page is actually accurate: you’ll be able to buy a $25 computer, which is what we’ve wanted to give you all along."

In the meantime, the Raspberry Pi - which boasts 512MB of RAM and an ethernet connection - is currently available at a $35 price point.